Every Stitch in the Tent

Luke documents that Paul initially worked as a tentmaker when staying in the city of Corinth. Making tents paid the bills so that every Sabbath, Paul could be found in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks that Jesus was the Messiah. We don’t have any further detail, but it sounds like he may have plied his secular trade as many as six days a week during this period.

That was before the invention of sewing machines. If his fingers got sore, it was not from flipping the pages of one too many Bibles.

I’ve Got Blisters on My Fingers!

Probably it’s this sort of ongoing activity Paul was referring to when he later wrote to the Corinthian church he had established that “we labor, working with our own hands”. Indeed. It appears the practice of working to pay his own way was not uncommon for Paul. Later still, he would tell the elders of the church at Ephesus, “These hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.” There’s a fair chance he ministered with a needle. That was his training, and he held his hard work out as a model for the Ephesians to follow. It is in this context that he says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Paul did not begrudge this kind of ordinary service. It made him happy. After all, every stitch in the tent got him closer to the synagogue and the spiritual warfare for which he was spoiling. Every stitch in the tent served other useful purposes too.

I’ve spent my entire adult life in the secular workforce, so I understand how absolutely banal the workplace can be. Same thing, different day, and sometimes the same thing is thoroughly unpleasant, stressful, mean-spirited or pointless. I expect I will be doing it until age 70 or thereabouts, Lord willing. I didn’t raise any blisters on my fingers pounding keys for over thirty years, but I know what it’s like to count up the hours you are spending in the office, set them off against the hours spent serving Christ in obvious ways, and have the mundane come out way in excess of the meaningful. Many of our readers will probably have done the same. Perhaps it has discouraged you at times.

Opportunity, Opportunity …

It has also given me opportunities to speak up for Christ that my parents never had. As full-time Christian workers, they spent much of their lives relating to the needs of Christians rather than the unsaved. I’ve met people and heard stories Mom and Dad would never believe. I’m not saying I took every opportunity presented to me or used every “in” to greatest advantage, but being in the world six days a week or more has had its upside too. The bills got paid, my kids and critters got fed, and I learned again and again how much better the Christian life is than the ones my co-workers and neighbors are living. We have an eternal hope that will never disappoint. They have Vegas … well, actually, most of the people I worked with over the years couldn’t afford Vegas. Their idea of a good time was the down-market Ontario native casinos. Not remotely comparable.

What I learned about the Christian life since 1979, when I first started working, is that when you love the Lord, every otherwise-meaningless keystroke in a day made up of thousands is filled with divine purpose and the potential to glorify God. It’s the thing we do so we can keep doing something that matters to us far more, and that matters to the Lord Jesus more than we can possibly calculate. At absolute worst, it gets us to the next moment of what we may recognize as useful Christian service unindebted to the world. At its best, we find ourselves modeling Christ in places he wouldn’t normally be seen or heard.

Stitching Our Way to Glory

Every stitch in the tent is an act of obedience and faith, or at least it can and should be. Every stitch in the tent is a chance to show ordinary people that the Christian life is not ordinary. Every stitch in the tent is a second closer to Christ’s return.

One day, Paul says, we will lay aside the tent that is our earthly home and put on our heavenly dwelling. Perhaps then we may be privileged to see exactly it is what we have been constructing.